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To know Japan’s back roads and countryside – you'll need a guide

The old town of Kyoto, Japan is part of the G Adventures "Backroads of Japan" tour.Photo: Getty Images

Jane Mundy

Published: April 21, 2019 - 3:22 PM

My first trip to Japan didn’t venture much farther than Tokyo and Kyoto. I spent too much time figuring out how to buy a train ticket, never mind navigating the subway system. Even ordering a bowl of ramen – you choose from a menu and pay outside then bring your ticket inside — it was all rather daunting.

But my second trip, which included these cities plus five towns in-between, was stress-free – because this time I chose a G Adventures guided tour.

G Adventures took us places that not many Westerners, have been. And our guide Mack’s timing was impeccable, as is the Japan Rail System. On my own I would have arrived at the station way too early. On my own I would have joined lineups at popular attractions (we jumped the queue.)

One journey required five trains to arrive at our destination, but we bought sake, beer and strange but “oishi” (delicious) convenience store snacks and enjoyed the ride.

Do you know why so many Japanese wear facemasks or why Godzilla is a national treasure? That’s another plus – when a fleeting observation or a question pops into my head, Mack, our indefatigable guide, had the answer. (People feel comfy wearing masks; it’s not just protection from germs or pollution. And Godzilla has to do with nuclear war.)

Kicking off in Tokyo and ending in Kyoto, in between we stopped at less-famous locales with sand dunes and snow monkeys, and shrines and a homestay in Hagi. Here are some highlights of my 10-day “Backroads of Japan” G Adventures trip.

Tokyo

For panoramic views of Tokyo we take the elevator up to the 45th floor observatory at the Metropolitan Government Building.

Our walking tour takes us to the back roads of Shibuya and the famous Scramble Crossing, Nonbei Yokocho or “drunkers” alley flanked by six-seat izakayas.

Harajuku Fashion Shopping Crowd.

The pedestrian-only street of Harajuku is lined with tacky stores selling garish clothes to swarms of teens, and young women dressed as Bo Peep parading pigeon-toed. (Artsy and eclectic shops are found around side streets and alleys.)

And just when I’ve had my fill of the masses and madness we visit the serene Meiji shrine surrounded by forest smack in the city centre.

Entering the depachika (underground food hall) at Ginza Mitsukoshi, everyone in uniform shouts Irasshaimase! or “welcome.” More than 30,000 items are for sale, including a perfect $100 orange, individually wrapped strawberries and row upon row of delectable everything.

Our first taste of Japan is a restaurant featuring shabu-shabu, which describes the sound that raw beef makes as you waft it through boiling water to cook and then dip it in sesame or soy sauce. An event in itself, it requires deft chopstick skills. Oishi!

Nagano

A bullet train speeds us past concrete square buildings to traditional wooden homes with tiled roofs and vegetable gardens. Past villages surrounded by cabbages and daffodils, rice paddies and apple orchards to the Japanese Alps and laid-back Nagano, home of the 1998 winter Olympics.

Zenkō-ji Buddhist temple in Nagano

Nagano was built around the Zenkō-ji temple. Founded in the 7th century with the most recent renovation in 1707, the temple houses the first Buddhist statue brought to Japan, but it is hidden from the public.

The ornamental main hall contains a variety of Buddhist statues and the basement contains the “key to paradise.” We venture downstairs to a door that opens to an underground passage and walk about five minutes in the darkness to a key attached to the wall, which is believed to grant salvation to those who touch it.

Empowered and back in the light, we shop for local, hand-made products like pottery, jewelry and silk scarves along the main avenue and stop for fish-shaped, apple-custard taiyaki pastries—delivered hot off the grill.

I could easily spend the entire day watching snow monkeys at the Jigokudani nature reserve, also known as Monkey Park, located in the monkey’s natural habitat—the forests of the Jigokudani valley.

Monkey Park residents in their Onsen.

Lured by food thrown into the human-made onsen by park wardens, Japanese macaques soak in this natural hot spring, squabble and groom each other.

(You can check online to see if the monkeys are there before walking the 1.6 km through the forest.) Throngs of visitors jostle each other for the perfect photo op: the monkeys seem to ignore humans, but not too close – they really are wild.

ŌtsuOnward to Ōtsu and the medieval Matsumoto Castle, which has maintained its original wooden interior and stone exterior. The old wood stairs are so steep and narrow and scary we high-five at the sixth floor.

Matsumoto Castle

Pop into the museum next door to learn more about 16th century Samurai and containers to dye your teeth fashionably black.

Located on the banks of Lake Biwa, Japan’s largest freshwater lake, the area is known for the Ogoto Onsens, where the Japanese check into ryokans for serious relaxation and dining.

Japan elevates food almost to a religion by way of kaiseki cuisine—the ultimate tasting menu. I lose count of all the artfully presented courses.

We dress for dinner in slippers and yukata—kimono-style robes—before disrobing to birthday suits for the hot mineral baths. You can either visit a public onsen or book a private room for a few extra yen. (Tattoos are frowned upon – either cover up or go private. And unless you want to use a handkerchief bring your own towel.)

Hagi

We arrive in Hagi early evening after a five-train journey. If not for Mack, who knows the time of every connecting train within seconds, this journey would take me days rather than four hours.

We planned on cycling around town and along the Japanese Sea but a downpour nixed the bikes. Instead we walk a tony neighbourhood with traditional wooden houses and peep into backyards; narrow roads along ancient stone walls and canals filled with fat koi; feudal architecture and orange trees everywhere, which were planted by samurais who had to change careers after Japan abolished feudalism.

G Adventures has teamed up with The Hagi Homestay Association and Planetaria to set up travellers with a local family for a night or two.

Our group splits into pairs and our host Mishi-san first picks up a huge bottle of sake at a supermarket before driving 20 minutes to her country home.

We sit cross-legged on tatami mats in the main room and huddle around a low table wearing our puffy coats, as the heat was turned off everywhere but the kitchen, but soon warm up with matcha (powdered green tea) and the electric fireplace.

Misha-San and her husband Shin-san.

Mishi-san gives us a tour of her house and apart from several miniature altars or shrines (one shrine is filled with dolls, another with fresh fruit and incense), it is similar to western homes.

Japanese families have these altars in their homes to pay respect to ancestors and worship their Shinto or Buddhist gods.

Mishi-san introduces us to her husband Shin-san. Neither of the couple (both in their late 70s) can speak English so we communicate with a translator app and body language. Shin-san promptly retires to a Lazy-boy in front of the television until dinnertime.

Dinner is a feast of fresh snapper, sunomono and vegetables from their garden, and square sushi that Mishi-san showed me how to make.

Later we roll out the futons to sleep on.

The rest of our group stay in town with younger families, some of whom speak English, tour the town and meet the neighbours.

Tottori

Hugging the Sea of Japan’s coast, the train ride to the seaside town of Tottori takes about four hours. Not many foreigners visit Japan’s least populated prefecture, but for people who prefer less crowded, smaller cities, Tottori is one of the country’s best kept secrets.

Like every city and town, it has many shrines and temples, but only here can you walk and climb a 16 km stretch of desert.

Sand dunes in Tottori Japan

Some of the Tottori Sand Dunes can reach 50m in height and plunge into the sea below. The Sand Museum showcases incredible works by international sculptors, all made with sand and water.

Working up an appetite after hiking through the park we scarf down the seasonal and local treat matsubagani (spiny-legged adult male snow crabs) and down a few beers at the harbour fish market, also called the kitchen of Tottori.

Kyoto

Stow your luggage in a locker at Kyoto’s train station. If you’re expecting to step back in the past you’re in for a sensational surprise — plan on spending a few hours here, and the eating choices are mind-boggling.

Since 1988 about 40 per cent of Kyoto’s pre-war buildings have been torn down, but the surreal Arashiyma Bamboo Grove (go at sunrise), the 10,000 orange and black gates of the Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine and the Gion district are beauties worth seeing.

Next up we enrol in a textile-dyeing class at the Shibori Museum, and model very expensive kimonos upstairs.

Before our last dinner we lope about Gion, keeping eyes peeled for geishas. We do get a fleeting glimpse of one Madam Butterfly as she descends from a taxi into an upscale establishment.

The writer was a guest of G Adventures. No one from G Adventures read this article before publication.

If You Go

G Adventures includes the Japan Rail Pass, hotels, a few meals and entry to all of the above, as part of their Backroads to Japan tour. And they can book your flight.

February is a good time to go if you want to avoid crowds. Bring thick socks (my feet were freezing in some shrines) and shoes you can easily slip in and out of.